The link between behavior, health and illness is unquestionable and the public health burden continues to mount. Mortality estimates for 1990 indicated that tobacco use, diet and activity patterns, substance abuse , sexual behavior and motor vehicle accidents were major contributors to almost 900,000 deaths (McGinnis and Foege, 1993). many of these preventable risk factors have their roots in youthful behavior. While the national commitment to health promotion/disease prevention is clear, the knowledge base that would allow for health behavior change strategies has not been elaborated. Further, what constitutes participation in health enhancing/health-compromising behaviors and interventions to decrease risky or instigate healthy behavior among the nation's youth has not been articulated. This secondary analysis will examine data from the 1992 National Health Interview Survey-Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The specific aims of the study are to: 1) determine dimensions of health enhancing/health-compromising behaviors of the total sample of adolescents, 12-21 years of age, suing exploratory factor analytic procedures on the total sample and confirmatory factor analytic procedures on split-half samples; 2) determine dimensions of health enhancing/health-compromising behaviors in sub-groups of adolescents defined by age, gender and race, using confirmatory factor analytic procedures; 3) determine which demographic, social, health and knowledge factors will predict different dimensions of health enhancing/health compromising behavior in the total sample of adolescents, using multiple regression and 4) propose for testing, multiple specific health promotion and prevention strategies based on the first three aims of this study. It is crucial to document patterns of health risk behaviors and developmental transitions across subgroups of adolescents. This empirical base can then be used to affect specific health promotion interventions targeting adolescents.